Getting the most from Partnership Bidding

[paulg]

I thought I'd share my recent experiences with the Partnership Bidding room as it proved very valuable for us and others may like to do something similar.

 

Firstly, we had a specific task that we wanted to do. I believe this is important as repetition aids memory retention and it focuses a session. In our case we were considering switching to Italian-style Ghestem overcalls and wanted to try them out before adopting them.

 

Secondly, I prepared 48 hands using DealMaster Pro. The constraint filters available in the Partnership Desk are excellent but did not quite have the flexibility I needed. Although I could get the all the 5-5 shapes in the filter, I could not force the opponents to have an opening hand. I also wanted 8 filters (the 6 5-5 combinations plus weak jump overcalls in diamonds and clubs, as forgetting the jumps to 2♦ and 3♣ are often an issue). DM Pro created a .lin file that I could then download the hands using the movie facility.

 

Thirdly, I paid my BBO$1 and asked GIB to bid for the opponents. This provided a true competitive environment and made it all 'real'.

 

This worked a lot better than I expected. We bid 16 hands per session (this proved to more than enough in one go) and now use these bids all the time.

 

Paul

[Cascade]

I indorse Paul's comments.

 

We have built a strong partnership based on the work that we do in the Partnership bidding room on BBO.

 

We have been playing for five or so years. Only a year or two before we started playing my partner was an intermediate player - she played in the New Zealand Intermediate Interprovincial Championships. In five years we have built a partnership that qualified to represent New Zealand in PABF in Shanghai two months ago. That might sound like a long time to some but I think a new partnership has a lot of work to establish firm agreements.

 

Much of this time has been spent online. In the early days we played against GIB online with custom hands that I loaded. I also wrote some software to just bid hands with simulated interference. But for a long time now we have solely used BBO with custom hands that I generate to fit a theme with GIB bidding the opponents cards.

 

Our partnership is hindered in that we live 3 hrs drive apart and my partner has a young family. We have done all of this work by stealing an hour or two as often as we can to practice. So we are there bidding most evenings for an hour or so - usually we are invisible so we can't be seen but we are there.

 

BBO partnership bidding is an excellent resource that in my opinion is under utilized - I think we under use it and we use it more than most.

 

I also generate sets of hands that my computer identifies as difficult so we practice the awkward an unfamilar auctions a lot. Which makes us better prepared when these hands come up at the table.

 

I'd share the program but it is not really in a state to be shared. When I want something different I hack into the code to create it. I use the same program to generate hands for my online lessons/touraments. It is on my to do list to make the program user friendly so that others might be able to use it but as Paul points out there are alternatives.

[ArcLight]

How does Deal Master Pro compare to the harder to use but free and more controllable Deal 3.0?

[kenberg]

Thanks greatly for this post. I hope you can say a bit more.

 

I have used the partnership bidding room only slightly, and I am not very aware of its capabilities. I have never used Deal Master. Spending cash is the easy part (in the amounts needed) but how about implementation? I can get the deals out of DM and into the bidding room w/o hiring a consultant? I don't regard myself as particularly computer illiterate but sometimes instructions read as if they were written for Unix programmers.

 

Thanks for anything you can say here.

 

Ken

[inquiry]

I love the Partnership bidding room. The best way to get something out of it is to use it!!!

 

1) You do not need to purchase DMPro, the room itself has a nice hand generating facility, or you can use free products like dealer, or the like.

 

2) I actually prefer using BridgeBrowser to get hands. The advantage of bridgebrowser, you can compare your auction and results (later of course) with what happened on line, and using Bridgebrowser you can select hands that match any criteria you want... I have pulled up thousands of deals that match criteria for MisIry convention (strong two suiters) for practice in bidding room.

 

3) I agree using GIB is a great addition. Of course, if you bid somethiong funny GIB will not understand (like MisIry) having GIB bid is not that useful.. as they are at disadvantaged by not knowing what your hand choices are...

 

Partnership bidding rooms are a GREAT tool for partnerships to practice, no doubt about it.

[paulg]

As Ben says, the built-in filter is excellent and works for most practice sessions.

 

However if you have DealMaster, and I would certainly not have purchased it just for this, then it is very easy to export your selected deals in .lin format. Selecting the deals is more difficult but it is a graphical interface and the examples are good. No programming required!

 

Paul

 

Disclaimer: I have been a UNIX guru and think that vi is an easy-to-use editor.

[kenberg]

Disclaimer: I have been a UNIX guru and think that vi is an easy-to-use editor.

Thanks. Back when I was regularly using emacs my son-in-law kept pushing vi. This can lead to more intense argument than the merits of various strands of rkc. I have declared my house a vi discussion free zone.

 

Ken